A Sit Down with DJ Tom Swoon

Polish DJ and producer Swoon has not only performed at a wide variety of festivals throughout his career such as Ultra Japan, Sunrise Festival and the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) amongst so many others, but he has also released over 165 installments in his Lift Off mix series and has released countless globally successful productions ranging from EPs, albums, singles to remixes and collaborations.

Who are your musical influences?

Lately I’ve been not really relying on any particular name, but rather curiosity around the musical tastes of other people – and that element of discovering something new all the time is something influencing me a lot now.

Let’s talk about your release “Atom”! What led you to re-working that track?

“Atom” was one of the biggest club hits ever produced. So when Nari & Milani asked me personally to remake their big club anthem – it was a huge honor. And I knew that I was not going to be easy to come up with something as strong as the original. The new version I did with Teamworx, however, scored really well! It was the #1 most played track at the moment in the club scene and also still number 1 on Beatport Big Room chart.

You released your single “Phoenix,” which reached 3,000,000+ streams on Spotify. How does this massive success feel for you and what can you share with us about the creation of the track?

Back then when it came out, “Phoenix” was a bit of an experiment, since I never tried making a future house song before – but it worked like a charm! Seeing it get so many streams and love from people made me real happy. I decided to work on ‘Phoenix’ right after Dank showed me a demo back at UMF Miami and the main reason I did that, was because of the amazing vocal, which I think delivers a really beautiful message. I love when music can be something more than just a good beat and gives the listener a bit of self-reflection time. I think the ‘message’ was the main reason behind the success of “Phoenix”.

What was the creativity behind your powerful and euphoric edit of ‘Let’s Escape‘?

I love to remix tracks – because I can give them my own twist, feel. With my remix for ‘Let’s Escape,’ I wanted to give it that melodic – progressive touch. I am currently playing it in all my sets.

Who do you listen to in your spare time?

I hardly listen to just one artist to be honest. Thanks to Spotify, I am always loading up my phone with totally different types of stuff, from jazz to drum n bass and depending on the mood, I click play on an appropriate playlist.

What was your first official remix, and how it came into your hands?

My first official remix was a remix for Gareth Emery’s “Tokyo” on Garuda Records. I did an unofficial bootleg for his previous single “Mansion” which he liked very much and he reached out if I could remix his new track. I was very excited about this and this is how it all started. In the meantime NERVO had reached out to me to also ask for an official remix of their new track. I couldn’t believe what was happening!

“… I believe that if that’s achieved, we won’t have to worry about the output of our work, because it will be something good for sure.”

What has been your proudest moment that you’ve had in your career so far?

Probably playing at one of the biggest festivals in Poland (Sunrise Festival) on MainStage while my parents were watching me from the backstage. It was a real great moment to show them finally what I am doing and why I am doing this. It was very emotional!

If you could play with any DJ who would you choose?

– Not wanna sound selfish, but the only DJ I could trust behind the decks and know exactly his work is… myself! Therefore, I’d definitely wanna clone myself and put out a show twice as bigger and twice as better.

Where are you most excited to be playing? Any new venues or cities for you?

Perhaps the event that will be most exciting for me, is funny enough the event in my hometown. The local council is organizing a huge event on the main square of my city and they wanted to book me. It will be a special moment for sure – because most of the time I’m performing elsewhere in the world.